Thanks so much. I'll jump in there. My name is Lauren van den Berg and I'm with the Chemistry Industry Association of Canada. Dave and I are sort of tag-teaming here.
I think you raised an excellent point. In fact, the wording of Bill C-30 was designed by its very nature to include all commodities and not just grain. Technically it does that, but the catch—because there's always a catch—is that you have to be within the right distance. You have to be within that 160-kilometre zone, zone 5. The problem that a lot of our members have—and I'm sure it's a problem shared around this table and it's a problem you've heard echoed in other witness testimonies—is that it's not enough. It helps only those who are lucky enough to have facilities or plants or mines within that zone. The extension of the interswitching provision last year without a doubt resulted in material cost savings, as we heard from several of our members, but again, only for those lucky few with facilities in the right zone.
The Chemistry Industry Association and several of the other associations we work with are advocating, as shippers, to expand interswitching beyond the 160-kilometre zone. We want it expanded throughout Canada, across all the provinces, and frankly, we want it made permanent.
I will pick up on a theme you've heard before, the idea of captive shippers and the power imbalance those represent. Seventy-eight per cent of our members alone are captive to a single class 1 railway, which represents a significant power imbalance that, if you'll pardon the pun, rails against the very principle of a competitive market economy. When we talk about economic security interests—which, I think, is a very valuable phrase that we could do well to echo every so often—and we're looking to encourage investments over the long term in Canada, we have to be able to make the case that transportation is not just safe and reliable but also competitive, and that's going to benefit the country from economic and security perspectives.